The emergence of digital publication as a means of scholarly communication
promises significant benefits for scholars as well as research institutions
and their libraries. However, managing publications in both print and
digital formats also poses major challenges.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded the university a $670,000
grant, following a smaller planning grant last June, for a two-year study
to explore how scholars and libraries can best integrate and preserve
collections of scholarly journals that are published in both print and
digital formats. The project, which began in January 2001, will systematically
evaluate the factors that affect faculty and student reliance on and use
of print and digital resources, and assess the implications of these findings
for scholarly and library practice.

"The work that will be supported by this grant complements the University
of California's national leadership position in creating digital libraries
that support teaching and research by helping us understand how print
and digital collections and services can be most effectively blended and
managed," said UC President Richard C. Atkinson. "The Mellon
Foundation's support for this important initiative helps advance our understanding
of how best to employ digital technologies to offer a higher level of
excellence in providing library services."

Planning for this study has benefited from the leadership and expert
advice of the University's Systemwide Library and Scholarly Information
Advisory Committee, composed of university faculty, administrators and
librarians. The committee has taken the additional step of appointing
faculty and librarians to a new standing committee on Library Collection
Management. The standing committee will ensure that the results of the
two-year research project are effectively incorporated into the plans,
polices and administrative procedures of the 10-campus University of California
library system.

Like other research universities, the University of California has a
strong interest in managing its existing library facilities to accommodate
continually growing collections. In addition, due to the pressures within
California of significant enrollment growth and the need to address urgent
seismic safety deficiencies and replace deteriorating campus infrastructure,
the university is faced with competing demands for capital funding.

One way to meet these demands is to use digital technologies to assist
in managing library collections, for example, by withdrawing print from
the shelves when electronic access is available to the same material.
In this way, UC can leverage its considerable investment in digital library
collections by providing its libraries greater flexibility in managing
their print library collections.

"Research library collections that comprise print and digital resources
present substantial challenges and promising opportunities," said
Brian E.C. Schottlaender, university librarian at the UC San Diego and
principal investigator for the Mellon Foundation grant. He is chair of
the new standing committee on Collection Management charged to integrate
study findings into university policy and practice.

"The libraries of the University of California look forward to working
with the Mellon Foundation in our collective effort to home in on the
right 'mix': print and digital, challenge and opportunity," said
Schottlaender.

The university's study will explore many aspects of such a strategy that
are not well understood, including technical methods and costs and the
effect on library operations and services.

The paramount issue to be addressed by this study, however, is the effect
on faculty and students as they engage in teaching, learning and research.
To address this concern, the central component of the project is an experiment
involving the withdrawal from the UC campuses of a group of journal titles
that are represented in their library collections in both print and digital
formats. During the course of the experiment, faculty and students in
selected disciplinary areas will rely on the digital versions of these
titles. Depositing a print version in the university's regional library
facilities will ensure persistent access to these materials. An extensive
program of interviews and surveys will assess the ways in which the experiment
affects faculty and students, and how these effects vary among library
users, academic disciplines and the characteristics of the journals themselves.
Results of the experiment are likely to be of considerable interest to
academic and research library communities nationwide.

The University of California is well positioned to undertake this experiment.
Since the mid-1970s, the university has been guided by the principle that
the library collections of all the campuses should be considered as a
single collection rather than as separate collections.

Consistent with this principle, the UC has a history of successful collaboration
among campus libraries that includes the development of a shared union
catalog, a shared collection development and acquisitions program, two
regional library facilities, a shared universitywide digital collection
and services provided through UC's California Digital Library, and an
expanding intercampus resource sharing program.

"Since 1997, the university has given a high priority to building
the California Digital Library, which provides a shared collection of
library materials in digital form, along with advanced tools and services,
to all students and faculty. The CDL was also created to help guide the
UC library system through the transition to a digital future in a way
that promotes and sustains the integration of traditional and digital
library collections and services," said Beverlee A. French, interim
university librarian for systemwide planning.

"The opportunity afforded by this grant from the Mellon Foundation
complements the CDL's efforts, makes effective use of the collaborative
library organization and shared resources of the university system, and
brings us closer to the goal of a truly integrated information resource
that can meet the information needs of the UC community without regard
for the format or location of the information."

Additional information about the University of California's systemwide
library planning and its Collection Management Initiative may be found
at http://www.slp.ucop.edu/.